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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/28\/arts\/bonding-and-battling-the-college-life-of-a-bollywood-dance-team.html?emc=edit_nn_20260928&nl=the-morning&segment_id=227179",
    "parsed_content": "Bonding and Battling: The College Life of a Bollywood Dance Team\u201cFor a lot of South Asians, dance is the way we connect,\u201d said a member of the team at U.C.L.A. Our photographer captured glimpses of the team, from audition to competitions.Bonding and Battling: The College Life of a Bollywood Dance Team\u201cFor a lot of South Asians, dance is the way we connect,\u201d said a member of the team at U.C.L.A. Our photographer captured glimpses of the team, from audition to competitions.Credit...Supported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTListen \u00b7 4:07 min Share full articleVisuals by Gabriela BhaskarText by Brian SeibertSept. 28, 2026The University of California, Los Angeles, is a big school with a diverse population. When Shaina Grover arrived there as a student a few years ago, she was concerned about losing touch with her Indian American culture.\u201cI was fortunate to find a close-knit community of people who are like me,\u201d she said in a recent interview. She was talking about her dance troupe.Bollywood-fusion dance groups and their circuit of intercollegiate competitions are at the center of \u201cBest of the Best,\u201d a coming-of-age comedy released this month on Netflix. The film is fictional, but the milieu is not. Since the 1990s, the field has been growing, and South Asian dance teams at American colleges and universities now number more than a hundred.The movie, set at U.C.L.A., invents a team. In real life, the university has a few, including the one Grove joined: Nashaa, founded in the early 2000s. During the past academic year, Gabriela Bhaskar, a New York Times photographer correspondent, followed Nashaa and captured glimpses into its world: the late-night rehearsals, the cross-country travel, the adrenaline rush of competition, the release of after-parties. The photos are a group portrait of embodied bonding.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cFor a lot of South Asians, dance is the way we connect,\u201d Rahil Luthra, a Nashaa member and recent graduate, said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s a part of our culture. It\u2019s in our movies. Our identity is in dance.\u201dLike many of his teammates, Luthra started dance early, when he was 5. Joining a team was a longstanding aspiration.\u201cWe kind of grow up looking forward to college because we know that the circuit\u2019s there and that we\u2019re going to meet our good friends on the team,\u201d he said.It worked for him. \u201cI met all my best friends on Nashaa,\u201d he said.Team preparations begin at the start of the school year, when new members audition (sometimes in a parking lot, as in the Netflix movie), said Shaina Grover, Nashaa\u2019s logistics captain last year. By the end of October, Nashaa has created an audition video, which it submits to as many as 20 competitions. If the group is accepted into any of those events \u2014 the circuit organizers enforce a maximum of three \u2014 the competition season runs from late January through March or April.At each competition, the team, with around 20 members, performs the same 10-minute set: a series of dance routines, with a video introduction, on a theme or frame story. It need not be strictly South Asian. Last year, Nashaa\u2019s was a riff on the \u201cMummy\u201d movies, with excavators in Egypt accidentally unearthing the undead Imhotep. The D.J.-designed music is a mix \u2014 a Bollywood track here, Kendrick Lamar there \u2014 and so are the dance styles.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cWhen Nashaa started, it was purely Bollywood,\u201d Grover said. \u201cBut they started adding more styles, and now we do hip-hop, contemporary lyrical, South Indian kuthu and Punjabi bhangra.\u201dThe choreography captain, Shraddha Guha, got an unsettling surprise at the start of last year when she learned that her co-captain, Samarth Hegde, had torn his A.C.L. and wouldn\u2019t be able to compete. But Hegde showed up for every rehearsal \u2014 as did Luthra, the previous year\u2019s choreography captain who, coincidentally, had also just torn his A.C.L.\u201cI never felt alone,\u201d Guha said.It was a good year for Nashaa. Since 2017, the top competition circuit has been Desi Dance Network\u2019s Legends. At a Legends partner event in South Carolina in January, Nashaa placed third (behind the University of California, Berkeley\u2019s all-male Zahanat and Saazish from the University of Georgia).\u201cI\u2019ve never been more proud of our team than I was then,\u201d Guha said.ImageAuditioning for the team. From left, Sanika Kharabe, Sahana Ananth and Shaan Mehta.ImageRahil Luthra teaching the team bhangra as it prepares for its audition tape submission to the Legends Dance competition circuit. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of stress, a lot of time,\u201d Luthra said of being involved with Nashaa. \u201cBut I could not have asked for a better college experience than being on this team.\u201dImageAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTImageBhavya Kumar flips for the audition video.ImageImageShraddha Guha, left, Nashaa\u2019s choreography captain. \u201cYou can\u2019t just depend on yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re depending on other people to hit the right moves, go to the right place. It\u2019s you and your team.\u201dVideoCreditCredit...Nashaa practicing a routine for its audition video.ImageImageParking lot rehearsal: A lyrical Bollywood segment.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTImageNashaa at the airport in Los Angeles en route to Columbia, S.C., for the Legends competition at the University of South Carolina.ImageVideoCreditCredit...ImageThe competition.Image\u201cI\u2019ve never been more proud of our team than I was then,\u201d said Shradda Guha, the choreography captain, after Nashaa placed third in the competition.ImageHotel room selfies in South Carolina: Sahana Ananth, Anjali Amanaganti and Ananya Sheth.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTImageIn February, Nashaa rehearsed at the University of California, Berkeley, for the Legends Desi Dance Network Bollywood competition.ImageGauri Chawla, a lead dancer, concentrating before the competition.ImageAashritha Musti watching as other teams arrive.ImageVideoCreditCredit...Nashaa rehearsing at Berkeley.ImageAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTVideoCreditCredit...\u201cNo matter what I\u2019m going through in school, in my personal life, when I\u2019m onstage nothing else matters except hitting the beats and being one with the team,\u201d Shraddha Guha said.ImageThe after-party.ImageImage\u201cI definitely learned how to be flexible and adaptable and not get flustered when things go wrong,\u201d said Shaina Grover, the team\u2019s logistics captain last year.ImageDancing begets dancing. After the competition, a celebration.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-28T09:03:11+00:00",
    "author_name": "Brian Seibert",
    "site_name": "The New York Times",
    "section": "Arts",
    "publisher": "The New York Times Company",
    "ai_headline": "Bonding and Battling: The College Life of a Bollywood Dance Team",
    "ai_simplified_title": "UCLA Bollywood Dance Team Navigates College Life and Competitions",
    "ai_excerpt": "This article explores the world of Nashaa, a Bollywood-fusion dance team at UCLA, through the lens of a New York Times photographer. It highlights their journey from auditions to competitions, emphasizing the cultural connection and community dance provides for South Asian students.",
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        "South Asian Culture",
        "Dance Competitions",
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